Abstract
The maintenance of equilibrium is dependent upon several basic mechanisms. A first class consists of compensatory stabilising reflexes which keep the body, head or gaze (sum of eye, head and body positions) fixed in space. These reflexes are regulated by sensory feedback from proprioceptors which signal relative body segment motion, and from vestibular, visual and tactile receptors which signal head or body motion with respect to space. The interaction of these mechanoreceptors in motion perception and in the control of posture has recently been studied extensively and the role of vision in this multisensory integration process has been particularly stressed. But equilibrium control also implies other mechanisms which do not use the feedback mode, an example of which is the important preparatory postural activiby which precedes movement. I shall deal in this paper with the interaction between stabilising reflexes and orienting movements which are made when an animal orients to a prey or visual target. In this situation the compensatory reflexes may not be appropriate and have therefore to be modulated or suppressed if they antagonise the orienting behaviour. In this short review I will give a few examples of the mechanisms which underly the interaction between vestibular reflexes and orienting reactions and, because orienting involves eye and head movements, I will focus on the vestibulo-ocular and vestibulo-collic reflexes (which stabilise gaze in space) and the mechanisms underlying active changes of gaze which ate made during head and eye turning to a visual target. For the sake of simpliciby these examples will only concern movements in the horizontal plane (that is in the plane of the horizontal canals).The main point of this paper will be to show that eye movement signals deeply modify the activiby of all neuronal structures which are involved in the control of equilibrium. Feedback sensory regulation of these neural stations forms only a small part of the control mechanism. A very powerful signal of eye position or velociby gives a feedforward or corollary influence which adapts the reflexes to the needs of planned orientation.
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Berthoz, A. (1985). Control of Eye-Head Coordination by Brain Stem Neurones. In: Barnes, W.J.P., Gladden, M.H. (eds) Feedback and Motor Control in Invertebrates and Vertebrates. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-7084-0_17
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-7084-0_17
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